Fans of the two-run Broadway hit Spring Awakening may want to consider a trip to Palo Alto next week for a new and pretty great sounding production at Stanford's Department of Theater and Performance Studies (TAPS). It's the inaugural production in the campus's new Roble Studio Theater, directed by Ken Savage, and it stars all Stanford students.
The rock musical, with music by Duncan Sheik and based on a controversial 1891 play of the same name by German playwright Frank Wedekind, had already run on Broadway for two years, closing in early 2009, before getting revived last year and brought back to Broadway just six years later, in a new production by the Deaf West Theater that premiered in Los Angeles. The revival got Tony nominations (the original production swept the Tonys in 2007 and won Best Musical), and was hailed for its integration of disabled performers.
The story follows a group of teenagers having their first sexual awakenings and dealing with the angst of growing up "The Bitch of Living," as one of the songs calls it.
Above is a music video of the cast in rehearsal, with an under-construction set, performing the closing number, "The Song of Purple Summer."
This production plays two consecutive weekends, October 27-29 and November 3-5, with a matinee on October 30. Find tickets here.